FTP from unstructured ride higher than adaptive FTP

TrainerRoad Software
1

This past Saturday I had a 2 hour threshold workout scheduled but because of the TdFf events on zwift I decided to ride the col de la Madeleine.

I held 302 watts for 52 mins which prompted zwift and intervals.icu to increase my eftp from 286 to 300.

On Monday I was eligible for an adaptive ai ftp calculation and when I did it trainerroad only bumped my ftp to 291.

I did a vo2 max workout this morning (Wilhelm) based on the 291 ftp and the rpe was a 2/5.

What should I be doing according to how the platform is meant to be used?

1 Like
2
  1. Use 300W for your FTP.
  2. Ignore the power ceiling for your VO2max workouts, just go hard enough for the duration.
2 Likes
3

Hey @Ghengiscone :slight_smile:

A bump from 286 to 291 is a decent bump! I would keep the AI FTP Detection for the following reason:

  1. Progression Levels automatically adjust downwards after an FTP increase. This is because two factors affect the difficulty of a workout: your FTP and the Workout Level. If either of these factors increases, the scheduled workout gets harder and vice versa.
  2. With your new FTP your VO2 Max workout felt Moderate due to the above, but your next workout is a VO2 Max 9.0, so the system is already adjusting difficulty based on your new FTP.
  3. Most other platforms use all-out efforts (commonly called capacitive efforts) to estimate your FTP using an FTP estimation model 1. This means that they rely on you completing maximal efforts within your training data.

For example, if you had a very hard 20-minute climb during a ride (ridden at ~ 105% or greater of current FTP), they might use that effort to estimate a higher FTP. Our model does not rely on capacitive efforts. Instead, our model predicts your FTP based on your training history and your personal biometrics, along with many other features. Capacitive efforts and FTP tests rely on one performance. AI FTP Detection accounts for much more with a broad range of data points.
1:ie Monod Scherrer 2 Parameter CP, Morton’s 3 Parameter CP

All that said, even if you were to manually change your FTP to 300, the system will fine-tune your Progression Levels (each power zone) to accommodate the new FTP based on how successfully you are completing your workouts. So, raising your FTP is more likely than not to lower your Workout Levels, which will essentially bring you to the same difficulty of workouts had you kept the 291.

I guess what I am trying to say is that all roads lead to Rome here, haha.

2 Likes
4

Thanks for the response Caro!

I’m absolutely loving Trainerroad and have been zealous about following the plan. Doing the unstructured ride that provided the ftp bump was the first non Trainerroad prescribed ride/workout I’ve done in months. So the platform really works for me.

But, (for now) the draw of that big round number is too much for me to let go of haha. I’m going to manually adjust to 300w and go from there.

1 Like
5

Welcome @Ghengiscone!!

Hehe, sounds good :slight_smile: Glad to hear you’re seeing the gains of training!

6

Congrats! I had a very similar thing happen recently, except my AI FTP was 274, and I did a ramp test and got to 298. Trying to figure out where to set my FTP and this is helpful… Hard to not go with the higher number :face_with_tongue:

1 Like